Posts

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Ouch, it’s hot!

After not using it for a while, I decided that I would move my Mac mini from under the TV and move it to another room and use it as a web server.

I never really got round to using it as a TV computer, or media centre or anything really. An old CRT television is never much cop for showing a computer screen so was always using VNC to control it and if I am doing that I might as well use the laptop I am using to control the mini to do my computer stuff.

As a media centre it failed, as the Mac mini could not cope with the streams that the USB EyeTV device provided. The EyeTV relied on the mini for encoding and could it do it, no, not very well.

I also found that I rarely watched TV which I wanted to pause if I got interrupted, for things I did care about I had already recorded it already on the iMac and was watching it through the EyeHome.

However after I moved it I realised I must have turned the Airport off, so I connected it back to the 802.11n Airport Extreme by ethernet and VNC’d back in.

Now here’s my advice, if you leave a Mac mini on top of an 802.11n Airport Extreme, be aware that both will get too hot to handle! The Mac mini’s fans were going like they were going to take off.

It’s incredible how hot the 802.11n Airport Extreme gets, what does it do which means it get’s so hot?

Well the Mac mini is now in a cooler place acting as a temporary web server.

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Hey, watch BBC iPlayer on your iPhone and iPod touch

The BBC launches a version of its iPlayer video on demand service for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

The BBC has launched a version of its iPlayer video on demand service for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. It is the first time the software has been available on portable devices. The software, which allows users to download programmes from the last seven days, will work over a wi-fi connection but not over the mobile network.

Read more.

I am really pleased to see this happen. I do use the (flash version) of the iPlayer on my Macs now and again to catch up with the odd BBC TV programme either I miss or my EyeTV misses.

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iPhone SDK Released

Today Apple announced and released the SDK for the iPhone (and iPod touch).

iPod Touch

Lots of other sites have covered the event and the SDK is now available to download…

Well at this point in time. no it is not possible to download, obviously everyone else is trying to download it!

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Don’t text and walk!

From the Guardian…

In case anyone reading this is one of the 68,000 individuals who apparently interfaced thus with street furniture in London last year (mostly resulting in cuts and bruises, but with a fair proportion of broken noses, cheekbones and one fractured skull in the mix too) and therefore is self-evidently stupid enough to need the problem further delineated, these are injuries caused by people who do not understand the importance of peripheral vision. Until, that is, they compromise it by texting as they walk along the street and into lampposts, signs, bollards and other pedestrians.

Read more.

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Final goodbye for early web icon

Goodbye Netscape Navigator.

BBC reports on the end of an era for the web icon which once had 90% of the browser market.

A web browser that gave many people their first experience of the web is set to disappear.

Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 March 2008, the company has said.

In the mid-1990s, as the commercial web began to take off, the browser was used by more than 90% of people online.

Its market share has since slipped to just 0.6% as other browsers such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox have eroded its user base.

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It’s tiny, but big…

Well the 2GB Micro SD card I ordered form Play.com arrived yesterday.

It’s for my LG Viewty to give it a little more memory over the in-built 100MB.

The Micro SD card is tiny, really really small.

I am impressed that it holds 2GB, I look at some of my old clunky memory cards which hold 64MB and I think to myself how things have moved on.

It’s tiny, but big.

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Adobe AIR

Adobe today announced the immediate availability of Adobe AIR, a new platform for building rich internet applications (RIAs) across different platforms, including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Adobe AIR enables developers to create RIAs on the desktop using the skills and Web technologies — such as HTML, Ajax, PDF, Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex — they already employ. Applications deployed on Adobe AIR have the advantages of browser-based RIAs, such as speed of development, ease of use, and access from virtually anywhere. Yet they also have the benefits of desktop applications, such as the ability to read/write local files, work with other applications on a user’s computer and maintain local data storage on the desktop.

It’s an interesting variation on applications, some use desk bound applications such as Microsoft Office, whilst others use web based applications such as Google Apps.

It’s looking like Adobe AIR will allow users to have the flexibility of web based applications with the backup of desk bound applications when there is no internet connection (such as on plane).

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LG Viewty Crash

I have been having a weird issue with my new LG Viewty. Every now and again it will “die”. Nothing will work, no buttons, not anything. Initially I thought it was the battery running out, but even plugging it into the power supply has no impact.

Currently the only solution  is to remove the battery and then replace it, then all works normally.

I am unsure of what is causing it, or whether there is a better solution. We’ll see whether it continues.

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2GB Micro SD

Well after some thought and a bit of traipsing around the high street, in the end I ordered a 2GB Micro SD card for my new LG Viewty from Play.com.

It was a little more than the prices quoted at Amazon but I didn’t have to pay a delivery charge so was quite competitive in the end.

Should arrive tomorrow or Tuesday.